


Can't help falling in love with you

by LaughingMcNugget



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Not entirely safe for work, Spoilers for BoS timeline, They're singing damnit and i am trash for a good serenade, kinda smut?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 11:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6422407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingMcNugget/pseuds/LaughingMcNugget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by https://youtu.be/6ThQkrXHdh4</p><p>Because I needed some fluff in my life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't help falling in love with you

From the start, he’d loved the gift. A too-small, too-old ukulele, hardly tunable, but it worked. Sort of. It quelled his boredom to keep it tuned against the wobbly knobs and slightly dented neck. The wood of it was soft, as though it had been wet for a while and was about to fall apart when it was rescued, as such it was ugly. But he loved it. Huge, battle worn fingers delicately picked the ancient string, and he’d smile at the cawing sound it let out. She’d only known one song for the instrument -not even the instrument entirely- she played guitar before the world ended, and only one song translated well enough. It fit, though. Elvis was who she said sang it, and Danse thanked Elvis every time she’s wrap her arms around his neck and show him the right chords to strum.

Needless to say, he ‘forgot’ frequently.

  
“Paladin, I’ve missed you so! Tell me next time, be-for you up and go.” he’d sing a greeting to her in the tune, something he’d make up on the fly.

  
It was their little game, and Danse had picked up on it quickly, only getting stuck a few times before he’d worked out the pattern right. He’d strum while the elevator hummed, hum while it creaked open, and sing once she stepped out. Sometimes she’d finish the true verse, and laugh at the odd combinations it created.

  
The sound of scuffing boots and the clearing of her throat announced a response “Sorry love, I’m just Garvey’s tool, a settlement needed me to kill, some ghouls.”

  
At that, the former Paladin put down the tiny instrument, and headed for the elevator, still humming happily to himself. He liked her on-the-fly answers almost as much as her singing about not being able to help falling in love. It was a nice concept, but he preferred to think love was a choice, a very human choice. He might be biased, considering she chose him just as much as he chose her. She was by the armor bench, stripping off the rain-coated shoulder plates and shaking her cybernetic arm loose, as it had gotten muddled with the wet fabric of her uniform.

With a devious smirk, Danse leaned against the wall, arms folded, and watched his partner peel off her armor “Looks like you got very wet on the way here.” It was meant to be an innuendo, but he was rubbish at that sort of thing.

  
The Paladin shot him a smirk of her own “Mmhmm, its raining too.”

  
He loved her sense of humor. He loved how she played off his. He really did. But he couldn’t let her know, so he groaned and rolled his eyes as though she were boring him “Get your mind out of the gutter, Paladin. You are still representing the Brotherhood, have some self respect.”

  
She scoffed, humming lines to another song she (unsuccessfully) tried to translate to the tiny string instrument while brushing back bits of her hair that had stuck to her face “Says the man who pinged my pip-boy saying ‘I need you’ followed by ‘Please’.”

  
Her golden-green eyes flitted up to him, and he felt like he was caught in an updraft the way his breath hitched in his chest. Something like fire danced in those eyes, and she smirked that ‘gotcha’ smirk at him, cheeks flushing pink.

  
“I strike a nerve, Dansey?” It was playful when she called him that now, always something goading him forward, begging him to launch an attach so she could have him wriggling on the floor with spurts of laughter bubbling up.

  
And damn her it always worked, he rushed forward, arms out and a giggly battlecry bursting past his smile “Come here you!”

  
She bounded away, armor clattering loosely against other pieces as she slipped past her partner’s grasp and blew a taunting raspberry in his direction. Danse’s boots squeaked to a stop in the puddle that had just been occupied by her, immediately turning and rushing forward once again. It was an old song and dance: they’d laugh, they’d wrestle (he’d always let her pin him), and then she’d spend the cool down period sitting on his hips and stroking her hand through his hair. He loved the way her fingers felt on his scalp or on his cheek, really he just loved the feel of her. Distractingly so. So much that he’d let his guard down, slipped on a stray splash from her dripping armor and landed on the concrete with a ‘thud’ and a winded ‘huff’ from the impact. He’d stood up before she had the chance to laugh, and found her at a dead stop only feet away from him with a hand extended to help him up. Her desire to lend aid would be her downfall. As if she saw the man become a predator, she shrieked, and made to dart. It was too late, the fearsome synth had snatched her up, and buried his face in her neck with a positively evil laugh. She squirmed, socks sliding futilely on the concrete floor and arms ensnared by the man’s.

  
“Danse! Stop it!”

  
But it was too late. He’d taken the flesh of her neck in his mouth and started to nibble, sending her into a fit of breathy giggles and one loud snort. She tossed her head back, and unwittingly opened her neck up more to the nibbling menace of the former paladin. He seized the opportunity and licked up the side of her jaw, making a long ‘Ahhhhhh’ sound from the back of his throat.

  
He lived for the cringe that shook down her spine when he did so. If only she’d known of the playful side of him being in love would expose. She liked it though, even if he did lick her from time to time.

  
“Ew! You’re so gross!” She picked her legs up and locked them backwards behind her assailant.

  
Danse nearly toppled over, falling very gracefully to a knee, then released his arms to hold himself up. The woman scooted forward, an attempt to escape her lover’s trap that was only met with him dragging her back with one hand and blowing a raspberry against her slightly rounded belly. Her legs closed around his hips, and pulled herself up against him roughly. The former paladin flopped to his side, then rolled on his back to let her sit on top of him: hip to hip, fingers tracing languid circles on his broad chest as they panted and laughed at one another.

Danse cushioned his head with his forearms, stretching out and closing his eyes with a sigh “You act like leaving me alone for a week wouldn’t warrant some drastic attention seeking methods.”

  
They remembered the last time she was gone that long, and how he’d stormed Sanctuary looking for her, only to realize she’d headed to the listening post nearly the same time he’d left in search of her.

  
She pulled herself forward a bit, now looming right over him “You could have just found me. I sent you my location in case I needed backup.”

  
Her mouth was now only just not touching the former Paladin’s ear “You could have backed me up against something while I was there. It was very private once I cleared it out.”

  
He peeked at her with one eye, and gauged her emotions. She didn’t look like she was seducing, and the hand poised just over his ribcage, tensed and twitching, didn’t look like a touch to woo. That was a tickling hand and she was baiting him, Danse realized when the deft fingers scratched at the flannel of his shirt in an effort to delve under it. He popped to life at that, thick fingers coming to land on her hips before mimicking her. Nicole let out a wail of laughter, and tried to roll out of his grasp only to feel his arms constrict around herself again.

  
“Let me go!” she was snorting every other breath now, face bight red from wheezing.

  
Danse kissed her quickly on the nose, before hugging her head to his chest “You know the password.”

  
“Ad Victoriam?”

  
“Nope.”

  
“Eternal Steel?”

  
“Nuh-uh.”

  
The woman hummed thoughtfully, pretending to be oblivious to the quickly stiffening bit of business currently seated between her legs “Please?”

  
Danse made a thoughtful hum in the back of his throat “Nope, you need to think harder.”

  
The woman lurched in his arms, popping forward just enough to plant a quick kiss on his silly smirking lips “I love you.”

  
“There we go.” He hauled her up to his face, and stole her in a deep kiss.

  
They laid on the filthy floor, sopping in the wetness of her amour and not caring an iota. Danse rubbed his palm over her chest, smoothing over the armor plate anxiously and attempting to wriggle it off of her. She let out an impatient chuff, and stood up sharply. Armor bits fell to the floor and were scooped in her arms to be put away. Little blurbs of her voice bubbled up as she did; she was putting on something of a show. At least she was until he pressed up behind he and encircled her in his arms, humming that same pre-war song pouring sugar on their partner. A strange practice, but Danse could get behind it if he were able to lick it off her. The zipper on her suit jingled in his grip, and he tugged it down slowly, able to feel the trapped body heat escaping. He bent for forward, neck straining to look over her shoulder at his work. His hand darted from the zip and caressed the thin line of her collarbone.

  
“You’re awfully romantic, seems like you want something.”

  
The tone of her voice spurred him bump against her, and she laughed blissfully.

  
The man rubbed himself against her, slowly, moaning softly across her skin “Only you, always you-“ his breath hitched when she ground back, a wicked growl in his throat “-I love you.”

  
The zipper traveled down more, accompanied by the rest of her armor, leaving her rain soaked hair sticking to her shoulders. A contented sigh left the both of them when he reached in her uniform and cupped her chest, kneading the flesh of her breast. She shrugged the uniform free from her upper body and let gravity work it down past her boyshorts. Danse immediately had a hand in her shorts and cupping her ass. She giggled lightly, head falling back on his shoulder.

  
“Danse!” she’d laughed at is eagerness, hands fumbling with the elastic around her waist “Let me get undressed!”

  
With one quick squeeze, he pulled back “Come to bed then, I’ll be waiting.”

  
He pressed a featherlight kiss to her shoulder, breathing a sigh against her matted red hair. He lifted away, and paced excitedly into the other room. Nicole heard the bed creak, and shook her head in spite of herself. He'd be the end of her, and she'd gladly take it.

  
“Like a river flows, surely to the sea-“ she barely broke a whisper. Her uniform was off and in her hands.

  
“Darling so it goes-“ she heard him echo with her voice as she hung the wet leather up on the armor rack.

  
She stood now, in black boyshorts and a black compression bra, the later of which was being smoothed over her chest when she heard him sigh. Her gaze flicked to the makeshift bedroom, and she saw him peeking past the ugly fabric that passed for curtains in the glassless windows. He noticed her spot him, and quickly sunk behind the ripped flannel of raiders’ shirts past, a light and boyish giggle in his wake. She walked slowly around the empty room, only the sound of her outfit dripping heavy drops of water, and him plucking at the strings on his ukulele.

  
“Are you coming? Or are you going to leave me here all alone. Again.” he all but sung, evident anxiousness in his voice.

  
She’d half rounded the broken cement wall that served as a door when she noticed the carrot and hubflower petals shaken across the ground. It gave the place a rather pleasant smell, she thought absently to herself, maybe she’d have to bring in a vase to keep flowers in regularly. The sound of her lover humming floated through the crack, and she’d almost closed her eyes to take in the sound when she saw a note placed on the ground.

  
-Wise men say, only fools rush in- was written across the top.

  
-Thank you for rushing in when you did, you saved me more ways than one that day <3-

  
-Paladin Hardass.

  
She set the note back down, and saw another about a foot in front of where she’d found the first. He’d started to sing now, low and peacefully. What a silly man to think he needed to woo her. The second note was in her hands, and she rubbed the pad of her thumb on the worn paper.

  
-But I can’t help falling in love with you-

  
-You’re the only person I can ever see by my side, and I’m honored you chose me <3-

  
-Dansey Pants.

  
She smiled at the use of her nicknames for him, though she was slightly concerted because she recalled trying to keep ‘Paladin hardass’ a secret. The second was placed back, much like the first, just as three more notes, close together, came into view from rounding the crack in the wall. Nicole stooped over, collecting the next.

  
“-Shall I stay, would it be a sin?-

  
-You make we want to share my bed, regardless of how small it is <3-

  
-Paladin Boyfriend.

  
She’d laughed at this, remembering when she called him that once while on the deck of the Prydwen, looking Elder Maxson dead in the eye when she did.  
She dropped the note with the rest, now on her hands and knees to pick up the next.

  
-But I can’t help falling in love with you-

  
-Words don’t do justice to what I feel, but when I hold you, I’m home. Thank you <3-

  
-The 2 A.M. screamer.

  
HA!  
She remembered the poor Squire who’d knocked on their door because he couldn’t sleep with them ‘Fighting so loudly’. She wacked Danse on the shoulder then, and told him to bite a pillow. He’d bitten her all over that night instead.  
The third, fully in the room was next, she dropped the previous before reaching for it and-having her hand snatched from around the corner. She had an assumption of what would happen next, and pushed herself into a stand while being pulled forward.

  
“Can’t wait Danse?” she’d laughed when the hand tugged her around the corner, and raised up her own, urging her to stand fully.

  
She’d expected to find him waiting with that hungry smirk and open arms, entirely wanting to consume her. But she found him just standing, looking at her hand, thumb pads roving over the soft skin. He had placed the ukulele by the wall and freed both of his hands. One kept its grip on her hand, the other flitting to her hip as he guided her to the cleared center of the room. Sometime between her stripping to her skivvies, and seeing him again, Danse had stripped himself of his shirt. Danse pressed his partner, his best friend, against his chest, hand braced on her shoulder as he did. What started as something that might have looked like a waltz was now her wrapped up in him, and the both of them swaying and circling. She smiled against his skin, and pressed a kiss against his cheek.

  
“Wise men say, only fools rush in-“ she laughed, thinking herself the fool as she serenaded him, but people do crazy things when they're in love“-But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

  
She felt something splatter against her back, and she pulled her partner tighter to her chest; he’d always found the strangest moments to cry. Nate had too, it must have been a soldier thing. His hands curled around her and she was lifted off the floor, her legs securing themselves around his hips. He shifted about, letting her recline slightly in his grasp so he could look into her eyes. She had the softest blush on her face, a high contrast to the glowing red over his cheeks and nose, as well as the bright streak of his scar.

  
“Shall I stay, would it be a sin?-“ he’d cocked his head slightly at the end of the sentence pacing backwards a step with each turn he made “-If I can’t help falling in love with you.”

  
She leaned forward and kissed him on the nose, arms encircling his neck in a hug. Her voice and his rang low together and she had to admit, even though she didn’t sound right singing love songs, and even though he was about as tone deaf as they came; they sounded like they belonged together. One thing in the whole wasteland that felt like it fit.

  
“Like a river flows, surely to the sea-“ his lips were against her ear, and his voice dropped to little more than a whisper “-Darling so it goes, some things are meant to be-“

  
He’d paced, still in time, to the bed. They fell back with no words exchanged, only fluttering eyes, fluttering hearts, stolen kisses quickly claimed back. The sound of fabric hitting the concrete floor, the release of the breath he always held watching her bare herself. The groan that escaped his lips when she tugged down his shorts and took him in her mouth. The pressure her lips built up in his gut and the warm release she brought out. Panting, holding. Minutes passing. Kneading fingers, bodies flowing together as the river flows to the sea. Tears, drops spattering on her cheeks and trailing down to her jaw. Murmured ‘I missed you’s and ‘I love you’s filling the spaces that moaning and sighing didn’t. Tense pressure, clenched fists and toes, tight embraces, a hot shock running up her spine and down his. Rocking into one another and milking the last of their shared ecstasy. A giggle, a hand stroking over his hips, breath against her shoulder and wet warmth between them. She rolled over, capturing his arm and pulling him against her. Just how he liked it. 

  
Danse sighed, exhausted, too tired to prolong their little game and too tired to care for much else than the soft curve of her waist against his palm.

  
It was a nice concept. Falling for someone so quickly that it felt like it couldn’t be helped, but Danse preferred the idea that she picked him. Picked their lazy mornings underground. The rickety elevator ride. Picked the too small bed with the too worn mattress that creaked like it were about to break. Tears on her shoulder. Hands in her hair. Sitting in the corner and shushing the demons of his past.

  
Danse pressed a reverent kiss between her shoulder blades, and trailed pecks up to her ear. His arms shook when he tried to shift, and satisfied himself with the feeling of her against his chest and sleeping. It felt right. Like anyone else would be wrong. Like the tiny, metal hand cluching his own was made for him. Maybe the song was right, after all, she'd taken his hand and ended up with his life revolving around her. Maybe the former Paladin could surrender a little bit of logic for romanticism, with a short sigh she wouldn’t hear. Because when it came down to it, it felt like there was no other choice. Because when it came down to it, he didnt want there to be another choice. 

  
“But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was emotional puke because I am an emotional woman.


End file.
